


The Archery Lesson

by abetternameneeded



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, tw blood mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25903255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abetternameneeded/pseuds/abetternameneeded
Summary: Robin teaches Alice how to shoot a bow.
Relationships: Alice | Tilly/Robin | Margot
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	The Archery Lesson

Alice watched as Robin hit yet another of her targets, she made it look so easy. Alice had seen bows before, had them and other various weapons pointed at her more than once. She hadn't quite been as ready for the world outside her tower as she knew her papa had tried his best to make her and sometimes- a lot of the times, really- people misundstood her. Thought her mad without any regard to the _reason_ she was the way she was. She had gone years without speaking to another person. And that alone had left its mark, and she'd been through other stuff too. But papa had always said the best people were mad, and he knew best.

"Nice shot, Nobin," Alice started talking to the archer.

"You think that was good? watch this," Robin closed her eyes and the arrow still splintered the wood of one of the trees not so nearby.

Alice's eyes went wide in awe. Robin really was good with a bow.

"Ever shot an arrow?" Robin notice the look, her attempt at impressing Alice had been succesful. And any excuse for Alice to stay a little longer wasn't anything Robin would reject.

"No," Alice admitted. She'd done a lot of things but there was quite a lot she'd missed out on and had yet to attempt.

"Want to?"

Alice agreed to Robin's impromtu offer. Robin was glad Alice wanted to learn, she'd hoped she'd want to.

"Okay," Robin was ready. She'd never taught anyone how to shoot, but she was sure she could explain it. Maybe. She handed the blonde adventurer her bow and talked her through how to hold it.

"Like this?" Alice asked taking the stance Robin had suggested.

"Yeah, Okay. And then if there was an arrow inside of it you'd pull back the string, aim, and then release once you're ready,"

Alice practiced aiming without the arrow a bit.

"Ready to actually try to shoot an arrow?" Robin offered.

"Aye!" Alice respnded to Robin, for a moment the word reminding her of her papa and the fact they couldn't be togther but Robin was a good distraction from that particular wound.

Robin handed her an arrow. Alice aimed it towards one of the easier targets that Robin pretty much never used. The arrow went a bit to the left but nothing too drastic.

"Nice try, try again?" Robin offered. "Aim a little more to the right."

Alice looked amazing with the bow and arrow, Robin mentally acknowledged. Even if her skill with it wasn't exactly Robin's natural talent level, yet. Robin hoped Alice liked doing it. She was having fun practicing with her. Even if Robin didn't need that much practice with a bow.

Alice aimed again, this time it went a bit too far right. "Meet it in the middle."

It took a couple more tries but Alice hit the easy target eventually. "I want to try one of the other targets," Alice was not one to hold back on saying what she wanted.

"Okay," Robin let out a bit of a smirk, if Alice wanted to keep doing this, she'd oblige. "That one is a little harder to hit but not too much," Robin pointed to another target that she only occasionally used to warm up or practice trick shots on.

Alice aimed and fired the arrow. It didn't hit it's actual target, but it hit a target.

"Robin, if that was a warning shot you need to tell your bow not to actually hit me!" a voice yelled.

Alice paused, "Is that Henry?"

Henry walked, or rather limped nearly, over to them, the arrow in his shoulder.

"Robin, you shot me!"

"I did not, I was teaching Alice how to shoot a bow. Why were you walking that close to the target?"

"You're the only one that ever uses this range." Alice looked at Henry's bloody shoulder.

"I shot Henry. I shot someone," Alice panickd a bit. She hated seeing anyone be hurt. And she defintley never wanted to be the cause of someone's pain. The guilt hit her quickly.

"Alice, it's okay. It was an accident," Robin comforted her. Henry nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, it's fine. I'll go to the hospital "

"You're wanted for treason, you can't. I'll get it out," Henry looked at Alice with a look of concern for his own safety. Alice always meant well, but sometimes things went drastically wrong when she was just trying to help.

"Do you know how to get an arrow out of someone?"

Alice blinked, "Well, no. But it can't be any different then getting glass out," Alice told him, remebering her own childhood where she couldn't leave her tower and so if she was hurt it was up to her papa to help her or for her to help herself once he was gone.

"Why do you know how to do that?"

"Watched papa do it when I was little and fell and hurt myself and couldn't go see anyone about it. It kinda hurts but it's fine."

Alice was rambling and starting to only make sense to herself.

"I've never shot anyone, or done any kind of first aid, Henry. I think Alice is your best bet."

"Aye, sorry for shooting you, mate."

Henry mentally scolded himself both for being far too certain that Robin was the only person using her archery range and for not realizing sooner that Alice was Hook's "missing" daughter. They sounded so much alike.

"Okay, fine."

"Sit down," Alice told him.

"Back to telling me what to do, are we?" Henry teased, trying to take his mind of the pain as he sat down.

"Please listen this time," Alice asked. She started to pace around. What did she need for this? A towel? Something for Henry to bite on because of the pain? Yes. "What do I need? A towel? Yeah. Something for Henry to bite on? Yeah? I can't believe I shot him. How did I shoot him? That's not great. Bloody hell what else. Something to hold some pressure? Yeah. Okay." Alice thought out loud and talked to herself a lot.

Alice walked off.

"So, that's how Alice's mind works," Henry acknowledged. "Good to know."

"Be nice," Robin scolded, her and Alice had been having such a good time and Henry had been just reckless enough to mess it up. She didn't blame her cousin, but it was a bit disappointing.

Henry held up a mock surrender with the one arm that didn't have an arrow sticking out of it.

Alice returned with all the things she said she was going to get. And an orange, for some reason.

"What's with the orange?" Henry asked.

"It's for after, this is going to hurt like hell and it's supposed to make you feel better. Well it was supposed to be orange marmalade but Robin didn't have that so you'll have to make do with the orange."

Henry accepted Alice's answer. "Okay then."

Alice handed him a towel. "Bite this, it'll distract you."

Henry did as he was told.

"The arrow is really long, there's no way I can get it out that way. Maybe if I break it?" Alice broke off a decent chunk of the arrow. She grabbed the other towel and touched his shoulder with it. Henry bit down and winced.

"Sorry," Alice apologized. "Really trying not to hurt you."

Alice used the towel to help her guide the tip of the arrow out of Henry's shoulder. She'd brought another towel as well and wrapped it around the wound tying it off just below it. "Clean that before you change the bandage. Couldn't find a real bandage so one of robin's kitchen towel's it is."

Henry looked at the patched up wound. He was actually suprised how well it was done. Why the hell did Alice know how to tie a turnaqoint? Henry felt worse and worse for his intitial reaction to Alice the more he got to know her, honestly.

"Well, thank-you. Anyway, is my mom here?" Henry asked Robin.

"Yeah, I think her and mine were talking about, I don't really know what. She'd inside."

Henry acknowledge that.

Henry walked into the house and both his mom and aunt immeidatly noticed the wound.

"Who hurt you? Who do I need to push around a bit?"

"Alice shot me with an arrow, accidentally. And she patched it up. It's fine."

Zelena laughed. "So that's what they're up to. Robin's giving Alice archery lessons, I guess."

"Robin's not a very good teacher," Henry told his aunt.

"I think she's just trying to spend more time with Alice," Zelena told him. They all saw the way the two looked at each other.

"Can it please involve something that doesn't involve my son getting shot?" Regina asked.

"Doubt it," Zelena told her.

Alice and Robin cleaned up the mess from taking care of Henry's fresh wound.

"I don't think archery's really my thing,"

"It's okay, everyone makes some mistakes."

"Really? Everyone?" Alice quirked her eyebrow. Robin was too good. "Even you?"

"In archery? No I never miss, but the last time I tried to cook, I started a fire. Not on purpose."

"Fine then, my turn."

"What?"

"Next time, it's my turn. I'll teach how to cook."

"Is that so, tower girl?"

Alice laughed. "Aye. I've gotta get back to my cottage."

"You could stay," Robin offered.

"No, I can't. We didn't tell papa I'd be here any later then this. If he show's up, I'll hurt him. I don't want to hurt him."

Robin frowned. She'd forgotten about Hook's curse for a little while. It wasn't fair. Alice was one of the nicest people, and she was being forced to suffer a cruel fate.

"Alright, do you want to take some food home with you. Aunt Regina cooked, I promise she's better than I am."

Alice agreed and Robin ran inside to grab it for her. They kissed goodbye and Alice started to walk away.

"See you later, tower girl. Be careful on those adventures, will you?" Robin called after her. She spun around and winked as she delivered her response.

"Always am, Nobin."

Alice walked back to her cottage and sat down to eat her food and thought about what she should teach Robin to cook the next time she saw her.

**A/N: DISCLAIMER: Do not fucking pull an arrow out of your body. You will bleed out. However, I thought this direction of the story was the best narratilley. Heres what you SHOULD do if you get an object stuck in your body(be it an arrow, a sword, or otherwise):**

**Break off the part that isn't lodge in your body if and only if you need to in order to avoid ramming into stuff. Then go see a docotor and have them handle it.**

**I'm not sure I quite got the characters personalities' correct but I tried.**


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